Fraudsters, ex-tax officers among Australians identified in data leak

Convicted fraudsters, directors banned by the corporate regulator and former Australian Tax Office officials are among hundreds of Australians linked to companies incorporated by Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Transcript

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The clandestine world of tax havens and offshore companies has always been a mystery to anybody not wealthy enough to buy into it.

But the millions of documents that make up the Panama Papers leak have at last exposed the inner workings of this enigmatic industry and reveal just how easy it is to set up a company offshore.

Hundreds of Australians are now being investigated over their links to the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. And we know more than ever before about the small countries where rich people hide big money.

Pat McGrath has been digging a little deeper.

(Footage of Icelandic citizens protesting against the prime minister)

PAT MCGRATH, REPORTER (voiceover): The shocking truth about how the world's rich and powerful hide their money has provoked anger around the world.

REPORTER (to Icelandic protester): What are you protesting?

PROTESTER: I would like the prime minister to resign.

PAT MCGRATH: In Iceland, the prime minister is resisting calls to quit over claims he concealed family investments through a secret company in the British Virgin Islands.

And other world leaders have found themselves caught up in what's being described as the biggest leak in history.

JASON SHARMAN, PROF., GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: This is data dump is bigger than we've had before and it's... more criminal conduct has been exposed than any other comparative leak from offshore.

PAT MCGRATH: As more scandalous details emerge from the millions of documents leaked from the Panama law firm, Mossack Fonseca, one of the company's founders has defended its practices.

(Ramon Fonseca speaks in Panamanian Spanish)

RAMON FONSECA, CO-FOUNDER, MOSSACK FONSECA (voiceover): We have formed more than 250,000 anonymous corporations through our history and we take care only of the legal part.

We do not participate in the activities of the company, nor do we have any responsibility over what the company does.

PAT MCGRATH: But Professor Jason Sharman was told a very different story when he visited the firm's Panama City headquarters eight years ago.

JASON SHARMAN: The people at Mossack Fonseca were pretty open in saying that their clients wanted to avoid paying tax. They said that they didn't really like to use the word "tax", or the phrase "tax avoidance" or "tax evasion" too much. They preferred to use euphemisms like "asset optimisation" or "financial planning".

PAT MCGRATH: In some of the world's most beautiful places, there are some very ugly things going on.

MICHAEL INGLIS, BARRISTER: Yeah, well, Singapore's running hot. But the old favourites are still there. They're alive and well: British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man, Guernsey.

It's a long, long list. And if you want a few risks and you really want to be edgy: have a go at Mauritius. You know, have a go at Somalia if you like.

PAT MCGRATH: Mossack Fonseca is just one of thousands of law firms and accounting agencies helping rich people set up secret offshore companies.

As a barrister who works exclusively in tax, Michael Inglis sees a range of reasons why people park money overseas.

MICHAEL INGLIS: At the top, they're used for hiding assets and income offshore. And that can be to keep it from somebody in a divorce; it could be to defraud creditors; it could be because somebody, ah, likes privacy.

But it could also be tax evasion. It could be money laundering. It could be proceeds of crime.

I think people over-bake it when they say that so many of these accounts are used for legitimate purposes. I think it's the other way around.

REPORTER (ABC news): The data leak also raises serious questions for Australian company Wilson Security. Documents...

PAT MCGRATH: Since last night's Four Corners uncovered Mossack Fonseca's links to Australia, the identities of some of its other Australian clients have come to light. They include John Patrick Gillespie, the mastermind behind the infamous Fine Cotton horse-racing scandal.

MICHAEL INGLIS: People used to get on a boat often with their solicitor and their accountant and go away to the Bahamas or whatever for weeks at a time to do this sort of thing.

Now the average Joe - particularly the rich average Joe - can do it from their computer in a few hours, sitting in the comfort of their home. That's a key contrast: the barriers have come down enormously.

PAT MCGRATH: We decided to find out what's involved in setting up an offshore company.

JASON SHARMAN: It's quick. It's easy. You can use Google. You can use a credit card. It's pretty cheap: between maybe $1,000 and $3,000.

PAT MCGRATH: Perth-based businessman Warren Black has been named in the leak as a director and shareholder of a company managed by Mossack Fonseca: Wealth Grow International.

WARREN BLACK, BUSINESSMAN: I think there seems to be some kind of witch-hunt flavour to somehow make people feel named or shamed or guilty about doing it.

PAT MCGRATH: He says there are perfectly legitimate reasons for setting up an offshore company.

WARREN BLACK: We live in a global economy, so using a global structure is certainly no different, really, to that: provided you're using it legally.

GREG TRAVERS, TAX DIRECTOR, WILLIAM BUCK: The legitimate reasons that we would see as to why people would set up companies or other entities in these types of jurisdictions usually come down to: that we're dealing with business operations in multiple countries, shareholders or investors in multiple countries.

And we've got to work out a way to be able to bring all of their interests together.

PAT MCGRATH: Corporate adviser Greg Travers has helped Australians set up companies offshore. But he says his firm would never take on a client who specifically asked for such a service.

GREG TRAVERS: Setting up a company in one of these jurisdictions is rarely your objective at the starting point. If it is, you're probably in the group of people who are exploiting these arrangements. And they're the ones that should really be clamped down on.

For the ones that are doing it legitimately, we're starting with: what are we trying to achieve commercially? And then this may well become the outcome.

PAT MCGRATH: As more details emerge from Mossack Fonseca, attention is now turning to what Australia needs to do to clamp down.

JASON SHARMAN: It's important to realise that most of the money often goes through Panama or the British Virgin Islands, but it doesn't stay there. It tends to go to places like London, New York, Switzerland, Australia and so on.

So it's at least as much big countries that are to blame for this kind of criminal activity as it is small tropical islands or Central American places like Panama.